Order in time!

I've been working on several Sinterklaas- and Christmas-orders already. If you plan to order one or more stamps yourself I would suggest to do this soon. Otherwise I can't promise they will be in time for the occasion.

Free

Autumn-holidays. Time for making autumn-lights with the kids and having lunch in front of the tv.

Stamps to match the cover

Tried something new: bookbinding in its simplest way. Fold several layers of paper, cut the paper to the same size, make three holes in the fold and pull through a thread. I thought it would be more difficult to get it neat and straight, but this first try looked quite good already. My inspiration came from the book Making books that fly, fold, wrap, hide, pop up, twist &turn.

Fric de Mentol

The mail delivered another lovely print to decorate our living-room wall. Made by Ana from Portugal. I ordered it in her Etsy-shop, in which you can find several wantable gocco-prints. I also liked the title of this piece: everyone is special.

Table-cloth

Yes, a vintage cotton table-cloth. €0,50. Another thrift-store find. Just big enough to make this folk-skirt. I just sewed the ends together and made a tunnel for the elastic. And she is happy with everything that has colour and is no trousers.

Unresponsible parent

While I was making stamps, my three year old made one herself. I let her, in spite of the risk of hurting her little fingers. She could use some self-confidence in the creative field. It is not easy to have a big sister with a great talent and drive for creating things. Neeltje was very proud. With some imagination we even discovered a little rabbit in the print.

Artists

While I enjoyed some me-time (again), my husband took de kids to the woods. From their finds they made these cute autumn-pieces. Simple joy. Also simple is to cut a series of squirls for decoration with this template. I reduced it by 50%.

A little present

My mother has a good eye for beautiful things. On a charity flea-market she found this set of stamps for me. A strange but wonderful selection. The one with the buttons is my favorite by far.

250 small rectangles

Finished. Well, not quite yet. The blanket still needs a back and to be quilted. That might take a while, so I thought it would be nice to show you the result so far. Our little danser recognized the fabrics from her dresses and pyjama's right away. In the picture she is testing the feel of her blanket-to-be.

Under a big toadstool

Every year a local foundation organizes Pixie-land. A trail of games and stories through the woods for little children. Unexpectedly the weather turned out to be amazing this year. While the kids enjoyed their pixie (green) lemonade, the parents warmed their faces in the sun, chatting and sipping from a hot cup of tea.

Easy does it

This is not my best week. Lots to do, some setbacks, a sore throat and no sewing-machine to divert my thoughts. So I was happy to find this project at Folding Trees. Can you believe this flowery ornament is made out of toilet paper rolls? Here's the tutorial. I just glued them together, without the help of laundry pins.

Fabric day

Yesterday fabrics came my way. The postman brought the sample-package on the left. It is from Kristin Doran, all the way from Australia. I just love her handprinted patterns. On the right a gift from my mother. For my daughters blanket. A piece of fabric from the dress she wore when she met my dad. Isn't that special?

So much fun and good memories

Photo's taken from a chair-lift over an indoor ski piste. An active weekend away with 4 friends. Befriended for 25 years at least. Some of us know eachother for 34 years! Yes, we're getting old. But because of years of skiing-experience we still managed to ski down the hill with youthful souplesse. Even tried something new: snowboarding. If only I were 16.....

One long week

Finally I had the guts to cut up those little dresses, pyjama's and shirts for a blanket. I'm happy I did, because I'm very content about the first results. But after sewing three rows of patches, my sewing-machine broke down. So she had to be hospitalized for the necessary check-up. And I'll have to miss her for a week! The blanket has to wait.

Red, orange, brown and yellow

Yesterday we replaced this spring-object by an autumn-branch. It looks a bit strange, those different leaves hanging there together. We gathered the leaves last week in our neighbourhood, flattened them in a phonebook and dipped them in melted parafine to preserve the colors.

Fiber tricks

This mini-workshop, given by turkish Suhandan Ozay, was part of the textile weekend in Tilburg. We learned a very simple technique to make an ornament or roomdivider. The materials we used are fabric, starched and cut in leaves, and thin paper-covered wire to make branches.